An unusual figure has been making the news headlines and attracting plenty of attention on social media over the last few days.
Thor the walrus who first turned up in Scarborough, where the town's council cancelled a New Year's Eve fireworks display in case it upset the sea creature, later delighted onlookers when he arrived unexpectedly at Blyth's South Harbour, as reported by ChronicleLive. You can read the full story here.
The story sparks memories of another popular aquatic visitor to our region - Freddie the dolphin, who became a regular sight in the late 1980s and early '90s at Amble, just up the Northumberland coast from Blyth. The first reports of a shy dolphin swimming off the coastal town surfaced in March, 1987. Then, as sightseers began to turn up, the bottle-nosed dolphin, quickly given the name Freddie, started to gain in confidence and began to put on public shows in the harbour.
Over the next five years, Freddie became a national media attraction, featuring in dozens of stories in the Evening Chronicle, as well as national newspapers such as the Daily Mirror. He attracted regular large crowds of spectators and, over the years, a continuous stream of boats and bathers flocked to Amble, eager to swim in Freddie’s company. The dolphin was obliging and soon people with various medical problems were joining him in the water and claiming the creature was passing on his positivity to them and, in some cases, leading them to a better life.
But where had Freddie come from? He belonged to a species that normally travelled in family groups and was generally elusive. One marine expert told the Chronicle: "He's a loner - an old male who was probably chased away from his family group. He is unique in that he is the only lone dolphin in British waters that we know of."
TV and film actress Rula Lenska was one of those who arrived to swim with Freddie. After two hours in the water with her new-found friend, she summed up the experience, with the cry of “magic”. “He lived up to expectations. He came up round my feet, time and time again," she said. "He has the most beautiful smiling face.”
Another actor, Jerome Flynn, of TV’s Soldier Soldier fame, swam with Freddie in 1990. He said: “Suddenly this huge animal appeared and leapt 10 feet out of the water in an arc. I screamed with delight, and I can honestly say that moment changed my view of life.”
Sadly, in 1991, Freddie was badly injured, getting too close to a police launch whose propellers slashed the dolphin 11 times. He left Amble in February 1992, and was sighted for a while at Tynemouth, then Sunderland, before disappearing from the region in April.
There was no news of him until 2002 when a bottle-nosed dolphin with similar markings to Freddie – and tell-tale scars – appeared for a while off Weymouth, Dorset. Experts said dolphins could live for 50 years, and it was perfectly possible that the Dorset dolphin – nicknamed Flipper – was Amble’s Freddie.
But again, the friendly creature soon disappeared - this time for good - bringing to an end the story of Freddie the dolphin.
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